Happy Birthday To Me, Pt. 4

In the on-going series of how awesome my 40th birthday has been, today in the mail I received a parcel from Super-Awesome James (if he hasn’t got cape, he needs one). As you all know, James is Actual Quality Contributor and KMA Brother #1.

He is also really fucking awesome at finding incredible things to send lil’ ol’ me for my birthday. For the longest time, it seems, there were Sloan limited releases around my birthday and Christmas and, since James is also an Internet Wizard, these things would find their way to my house. Well, since Sloan’s new record (Commonwealth – you know you’re gonna buy it!) isn’t out ’til September, the pattern was broken. But fear not, because James has come through with a stunning piece of music gorgeousness:

Oh yes, friends, displayed on our lovingly restored kitchen island tops is a beautiful copy of Guided by Voices’ Universal Truths And Cycles. On LP. Why is this so awesome? Because when I opened the box and peered inside and saw this in there, I did a happy dance right there in the kitchen (and you’d think the kids would look at me like I was nuts but, no, they joined in). Because this is the first Guided By Voices album I have ever owned on LP (I’ve always bought CDs. Believe me I want them all on vinyl but that’s a very slippery slope). Because Guided By Voices fucking rules. Because this album is really, really, really good. Because James. THANK YOU JAMES!

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And, as if that parcel from James wasn’t enough (and it so totally was HOT DAMN!), Canada Post also brought me the Led Zeppelin I Deluxe Remastered copy, today. As you’ll all recall, my Mom gave me the go-ahead to upgrade from Remastered to Deluxe Remastered on LZ I & II! (The LZ III she gave was already the Deluxe).

Mike, you were right, at 3 x 180g records, it does have some heft to it. Yes, it is a very seriously gorgeous thing of beauty. THANK YOU MOM!

Haha I know, right? Well, it’s tentatively opened. See, Guided by Voices is so friggin’ prolific, I could probably go buy as much as I already own again, on vinyl, and it would all be stuff that was vinyl only. I mean, in 7″ singles alone, there’s so much out there that’s unreleased on CD…

It’s long been my hope that (eventually) Mr. Pollard will put out some box sets (it would require plural) of all the stuff that was exclusive to the singles and vinyls for all this time. I figure it’s his retirement plan. But if I were to try to start collecting it all now… it’s nigh on impossible. There’s just SO much.

But I am super-thrilled to have UTAC on vinyl – it’s a particularly great album (in a long line of great albums from them), and I know for sure that this is a band meant to be heard on vinyl. HOORAY FOR JAMES!!

Dude. GBV is so friggin’ prolific it’s unreal. There was a record (I forget which) where they were handmaking the packaging and ran out of materials and so they used the pizza boxes and beer cases they had on hand. Seriously.

You can search by release years, countries, formats, side projects, band members… I’ve already emailed the Dude that runs that site, long ago, to thank him for his efforts. I use it as a shopping list. It’s fucking boggling.